TIP OF THE WEEK:The FY2018 application filing window will open at noon EST on Thursday, January 11, 2018 and close at 11:59 PM EDT on Thursday, March 22, 2018. Thursday, February 22, 2018 is the last day applicants can certify an FCC Form 470, wait the required 28 days, and certify an FCC Form 471 on the last day of the window.

Commitments for Funding Year 2017

Funding Year 2017. USAC is scheduled to release Funding Year (FY) 2017 Wave 30 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on December 22. As of December 15, FY2017 commitments total over $1.99 billion.

On the date that FCDLs are issued, you can access your FCDL notification from the Notifications section of your landing page in the E-rate Productivity Center (EPC).

FY2018 FCC Form 470 Reminders

To start an FCC Form 470 for FY2018 in EPC, log in to EPC and click the FCC Form 470 link at the top of your landing page.

For those of you who are filing the FCC Form 470 in EPC for the first time – or for those applicants who need a reminder of the differences between EPC and the legacy filing system – we are providing the following tips and reminders:

The FCC Form 470 must be filed online in EPC.

There is no longer a paper version of the FCC Form 470. Any necessary instructions are built into the online experience. There are user guides available on the USAC website to help applicants complete their forms. Before you submit your form, you can review and print a PDF version of your draft form. You can then review the PDF and make any necessary edits before the form is certified.

Some information must be completed in your organization's profile in EPC before you can file a program form.

Your billed entity information – including address and contact information, attributes for the schools in a school district or libraries in a library system, and other pertinent data – is pulled into program forms that you file from your organization's profile in EPC. You should review this information for accuracy and make any necessary changes before you file your form.

If you need help locating or creating a school in your school district or a library in your library system, call the Client Service Bureau (CSB) at 888-203-8100. Consortia should also verify that their members are featured in the consortium's profile before the consortium certifies the FCC Form 470.

If you issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) and/or RFP documents, they must be uploaded to the FCC Form 470.

If you are issuing an RFP and/or one or more RFP documents, you are required to upload those documents to your FCC Form 470. We use "RFP" and "RFP document" generically to refer to any bidding document that describes your project and requested services in more detail than that provided in the data entry fields on the FCC Form 470. An RFP document can be a formal bidding document – for example, an Invitation for Bid (IFB) or Request for Quote (RFQ) – or it could be any document issued as part of your competitive bidding process to provide more information to potential bidders. It is not sufficient for you to upload a document that contains a link to another website where the RFP can be accessed (for example, a procurement portal). The actual RFP itself (along with all subsequent addendums) must be made publicly available through USAC's website by uploading the RFP in EPC.

In addition, RFP documents issued AFTER an FCC Form 470 is certified and posted MUST be uploaded to that certified FCC Form 470. Note that if you did not add an RFP document to your original form before it was certified, you cannot add an RFP document later – instead, to include an RFP document, you must attach the document to a new FCC Form 470 and then certify that form.

Remember to comply with all competitive bidding requirements, including the requirement that applicants wait at least 28 days after the FCC Form 470 and/or RFP is posted to the USAC website before selecting a service provider, executing any contracts for contracted services, or signing and submitting an FCC Form 471.

To add an RFP document to a certified FCC Form 470:

From your organization's landing page, scroll down to the FCC Forms section and use the search function to locate your form.

Click the form nickname to open the form.

Choose Related Actions from the menu underneath the form nickname, then choose Add an RFP Document.

If you attached an RFP document to your FCC Form 470, click the Choose File button from the Upload RFP section, upload your RFP document, and then associate the document to the appropriate service request(s). Remember that you must upload the actual document.

Applicants certify the form online before it is posted to the USAC website.

In EPC, the FCC Form 470 is not posted to the USAC website until it is certified. If the user who creates the form does not also have the necessary rights (permissions) to certify it, EPC will create a task for users within the organization who do.

Users with partial rights to the FCC Form 470 can complete and edit the form but cannot certify the form.

Users with full rights to the FCC Form 470 can complete, edit, and certify the form in EPC.

USAC no longer issues paper FCC Form 470 Receipt Notification Letters (RNLs). Instead, your RNL will appear in the News tab in your EPC account a short time after you certify your form. Requests to correct certain errors can be submitted through EPC by clicking Related Actions in the form as described above.

Service providers can view filed FCC Forms 470 either through EPC or through the USAC website.

EPC has a search and download function that will allow service providers with accounts in EPC to search for certified FCC Forms 470.